New Ultra extremely slow Wi-Fi

[baslotto]

I just received my new Mac Studio Ultra and as I was downloading apps and plugins for my recording studio I noticed that the Wi-Fi was extremely slow. Like downloading at 6kb/second. My old iMac runs just fine and it’s at the same distance from the antenna.
Is anything known about the Studio having Wi-Fi problems? Is there anything I could buy to substitute the Wi-Fi antenna (like a usb wifi antenna or something) I can’t connect the computer via Ethernet where I’m located.
Thank you for any help!!

 

[webbga]

I just received my new Mac Studio Ultra and as I was downloading apps and plugins for my recording studio I noticed that the Wi-Fi was extremely slow. Like downloading at 6kb/second. My old iMac runs just fine and it’s at the same distance from the antenna.
Is anything known about the Studio having Wi-Fi problems? Is there anything I could buy to substitute the Wi-Fi antenna (like a usb wifi antenna or something) I can’t connect the computer via Ethernet where I’m located.
Thank you for any help!!

I had the same issue when I migrated from a late 2015 27" iMac to the Studio Mac. I live in an area that does not have great Internet to begin with , but my upload and download speeds really deteriorated. By chance I saw a post that suggested going into System Preferences> iCloud> Private Relay (Beta) and turning it off. I did that and my speeds returned to what they were before. Not sure if this is your issue, but it is worth try. Hope it helps

 

[XavierScott]

I just got my Ultra and mine is very fast - way faster than my MacPro, the wifi is so snappy.

 

[baslotto]

Mmm… it might be my router acting up. I’m trying to pinpoint the issue. When I turned on the Mac this morning I had a really fast connection that in less than 3 minutes became super slow again. I’m investigating

 

[jasoncarle]

This is why I dislike Wifi and have all my desktop computers plugged into ethernet.

 

[GlenK]

The speed on my Ultra is fine on WiFi. The only wifi issue I have is it doesn't reconnect when I restart the Studio and I have to do it manually. But speed once connected seems to be fine.

 

[Fishrrman]

I'd suggest that you
- Power OFF your ISP modem/router, then power on again.
While it's rebooting...
- go to the network preference pane
- DELETE your existing wifi connection
- Create a NEW wifi connection
- When everything "comes back up", see if things have improved.

Having said that...
How much USB stuff do you have connected in the back?
There could be interference being generated by all the cabling that affects the wifi signal reception.

 

[Pressure]

It comes with 10Gbps ethernet for a reason

Anyway for best performance your WiFi equipment needs to support 802.11ax @ 5GHz (WiFi6) with two spatial streams and a bandwidth of 80Mhz. That gives you a theoretical maximum speed of 1200Mbps

 

[vhp3]

I had the same problem. Check this thread out. In the end they swapped mine out for a new one.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/ultra-wifi-problems.2339188/

 

[mikehalloran]

It comes with 10Gbps ethernet for a reason

Anyway for best performance your WiFi equipment needs to support 802.11ax @ 5GHz (WiFi6) with two spatial streams and a bandwidth of 80Mhz. That gives you a theoretical maximum speed of 1200Mbps

Well, 10GbE won't do any good if the router, modem and ISP can't handle it on the back end. I live in one of those internet black holes known as the Silicon Valley where most of our internet is still over copper. My iMac Pro has 10GbE , too, and that does no good around here.

If the OP has optical, check with the ISP to see if a modem upgrade is necessary. They don't upgrade the equipment till there's a service change or somebody complains.

Agree on the 802.11ax WiFi router — again, the modem needs to support the speed.

 

[Pressure]

Well, 10GbE won't do any good if the router, modem and ISP can't handle it on the back end. I live in one of those internet black holes known as the Silicon Valley where most of our internet is still over copper. My iMac Pro has 10GbE , too, and that does no good around here.

If the OP has optical, check with the ISP to see if a modem upgrade is necessary. They don't upgrade the equipment till there's a service change or somebody complains.

Agree on the 802.11ax WiFi router — again, the modem needs to support the speed.

1Gbps ethernet is better than any WiFi solution.

You can theoretically hit 1.2Gbps on 802.11ax on newer Apple devices but the actual speed is never going to be that high.

It's a desktop machine, plug it in.

 

[mikehalloran]

1Gbps ethernet is better than any WiFi solution.

You can theoretically hit 1.2Gbps on 802.11ax on newer Apple devices but the actual speed is never going to be that high.

It's a desktop machine, plug it in.

Wow, you certainly assume a lot, don't you?

I get to plug in because 20 years ago, I paid a college kid a C-note to crawl under the house and run CAT5e to every room. My other house has a basement which makes it even easier. Not everyone is this fortunate. Since none of it is tied down, I can use the old cabling to pull CAT6a or faster but, until AT&T or anyone makes a speedier back end available to me, there's no reason to do so.

Do you know that 802.11ac @ 3.6Gbps is faster for downloading than 1GbE unless you have obstacles like a water heater in the way? My son-in-law was the test engineer at Apple and, when it was released, I was sceptical but my tests verified that he was right. Unfortunately, not being full duplex, it can introduce a small amount latency unacceptable to gamers.

The theoretical maximum of 802.11ax is 9.6Gbps and it is full duplex. Since 10GbE doesn't run at its theoretical maximum either, that's close enough for most users.

I bought a WiFi6/802.11ax router recently to increase coverage area for my laptops but that's all it does without something faster behind the wall, unfortunately.

A first world problem to be sure.

More reading if you need it:
WiFi 6 vs. Ethernet – Which is the Best to Use?

 

[Pressure]

Wow, you certainly assume a lot, don't you?

I get to plug in because 20 years ago, I paid a college kid a C-note to crawl under the house and run CAT5e to every room. My other house has a basement which makes it even easier. Not everyone is this fortunate. Since none of it is tied down, I can use the old cabling to pull CAT6a or faster but, until AT&T or anyone makes a speedier back end available to me, there's no reason to do so.

Do you know that 802.11ac @ 3.6Gbps is faster for downloading than 1GbE unless you have obstacles like a water heater in the way? My son-in-law was the test engineer at Apple and, when it was released, I was sceptical but my tests verified that he was right. Unfortunately, not being full duplex, it can introduce a small amount latency unacceptable to gamers.

The theoretical maximum of 802.11ax is 9.6Gbps and it is full duplex. Since 10GbE doesn't run at its theoretical maximum either, that's close enough for most users.

I bought a WiFi6/802.11ax router recently to increase coverage area for my laptops but that's all it does without something faster behind the wall, unfortunately.

A first world problem to be sure.

More reading if you need it:
WiFi 6 vs. Ethernet – Which is the Best to Use?

Apple's implementation used across all M1 devices (including this Mac Studio) is ax@5GHz with a channel bandwidth of 80MHz and 2 spatial streams. That is 1200Mbps at theoretical maximum PHY data rate, which you will never get in the real world.

Unfortunately it's the opposite with regards to coverage. You get less the higher the frequency. 2.4GHz can penetrate further than 5GHz can.

And yes, ethernet have overhead as well but it's a wired and stable connection. You will get something in the neighbourhood of 9400Mbps give or take from the 10Gbps ethernet port.

 

[mikehalloran]

Unfortunately it's the opposite with regards to coverage. You get less the higher the frequency. 2.4GHz can penetrate further than 5GHz can.

Again, you are making assumptions. I never compared 2.4GHz to 5GHz. You're right but it doesn't matter since it was clear that I was comparing the coverage my new WiFi router to the old one. Since I neither identified brands nor models, there's nothing for you to correct.

Time to change the channel.

 

[Pressure]

Again, you are making assumptions. I never compared 2.4GHz to 5GHz. You're right but it doesn't matter since it was clear that I was comparing the coverage my new WiFi router to the old one. Since I neither identified brands nor models, there's nothing for you to correct.

Time to change the channel.

It still doesn't change the fact that a wired connection (with regards to Apple) is the better option over WiFi when it comes to this desktop computer. That's when you joined the discussion and decided to leave "haha" emoticons on posts.

Apple's WiFi implementation maxes out at a theoretical 1200Mbps and that's that. A speed you will never obtain in the real world outside an anechoic chamber.

 

[mikehalloran]

Again, you assume too much and are making uninformed guesses. I've said everything I need to in this thread and am now ignoring it.

Change the channel.

 

[baslotto]

Apple's implementation used across all M1 devices (including this Mac Studio) is ax@5GHz with a channel bandwidth of 80MHz and 2 spatial streams. That is 1200Mbps at theoretical maximum PHY data rate, which you will never get in the real world.

Unfortunately it's the opposite with regards to coverage. You get less the higher the frequency. 2.4GHz can penetrate further than 5GHz can.

And yes, ethernet have overhead as well but it's a wired and stable connection. You will get something in the neighbourhood of 9400Mbps give or take from the 10Gbps ethernet port.

I know for a fact that any 5GHz signal gets really weak at the location where the Mac Studio is, but wait; so this new Mac Studio doesn’t have the ability to pick up the 2.4 GHz signal from the routers at all?

For now I solved by placing a signal amplifier closer to the computer than how I had it set up before with the iMac. Fingers crossed.

Like I said, unfortunately there’s no way in my situation that I can use any wires to connect to the internet. The studio is detached from my house and it would cost me a fortune to set up the whole thing discretely.

Thanks everyone for pitching in! Very appreciated!

 

[maralbjo]

I eventually found the source of my ultra slow Wi-Fi problems: It was due to the Satechi hub that I have sat my Mac Studio on. If you have purchased a Satechi thing to extend number of ports, you may have found the source of your trouble.

https://www.reddit.com/r/MacStudio/comments/19dsuid